Quantitative patterns in drone wars

Javier Garcia-Bernardo*, Peter Sheridan Dodds, Neil F. Johnson

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    Attacks by drones (i.e., unmanned combat air vehicles) continue to generate heated political and ethical debates. Here we examine the quantitative nature of drone attacks, focusing on how their intensity and frequency compare with that of other forms of human conflict. Instead of the power-law distribution found recently for insurgent and terrorist attacks, the severity of attacks is more akin to lognormal and exponential distributions, suggesting that the dynamics underlying drone attacks lie beyond these other forms of human conflict. We find that the pattern in the timing of attacks is consistent with one side having almost complete control, an important if expected result. We show that these novel features can be reproduced and understood using a generative mathematical model in which resource allocation to the dominant side is regulated through a feedback loop.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)380-384
    Number of pages5
    JournalPhysica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
    Volume443
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2015

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    PSD was supported by NSF CAREER Grant No. 0846668 .

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2015 Elsevier B.V.

    Funding

    PSD was supported by NSF CAREER Grant No. 0846668 .

    Keywords

    • Drones
    • Scaling
    • Terrorism
    • Warfare

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Quantitative patterns in drone wars'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this